Curious if any of you have been following this latest air strike conducted by IDF in Syria on Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps weapons depot? It kinda appears that things are kicking up a notch in the Iran vs. Israel relationship. Their F-15s spoofed US identifications to avoid Russian air defenses, supposedly.

Iran has been steadily building a land bridge to Israel via Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, and now has a huge number (~80,000) of IRGC and Hezbollah fighters basically on Israel's doorstep. That would be a problem for any nation, under virtually any circumstances.

Israel has countered by conducting air ops and assassinations inside Syria and possibly elsewhere, and by supplying intelligence to the US to erode the Iran-US nuclear deal.

Does anyone follow this? Or have any thoughts on where this is all headed? Some folks who know about this kind of thing are suggesting that this air operation yesterday was a clear Operational Preparation of Battlespace type deal and that more is on the way.

Last edited by Fat Cat on Tue May 01, 2018 9:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"Prepare your hearts as a fortress, for there will be no other." -Francisco Pizarro González

Curious if any of you have been following this latest air strike conducted by IDF in Syria on Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps weapons depot? It kinda appears that things are kicking up a notch in the Iran vs. Israel relationship. Their F-15s spoofed US identifications to avoid Russian air defenses, supposedly.

Iran has been steadily building a land bridge to Israel via Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, and now has a huge number (~80,000) of IRGC and Hezbollah fighters basically on Israel's doorstep. That would be a problem for any nation, under virtually any circumstances.

Israel has countered by conducting air ops and assassinations inside Syria and possibly elsewhere, and by supplying intelligence to the US to erode the Iran-US nuclear deal.

Does anyone follow this? Or have any thoughts on where this is all headed? Some folks who know about this kind of thing are suggesting that this air operation yesterday was a clear Operational Preparation of Battlespace type deal and that more is on the way.

This info is new to me. I've been real busy the last couple of weeks but two things pinged my radar that made me wonder about things in the ME.
1) BeBe's big public reveal on Iranian nuclear plans.
2) The Saudi's telling the Palestinians to get their heads out of their asses.

Made me wonder if they were preparatory towards an Israeli/Saudi/(US?) anti-Iran move in the ME.

Mao wrote:Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party

Curious if any of you have been following this latest air strike conducted by IDF in Syria on Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps weapons depot? It kinda appears that things are kicking up a notch in the Iran vs. Israel relationship. Their F-15s spoofed US identifications to avoid Russian air defenses, supposedly.

Iran has been steadily building a land bridge to Israel via Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, and now has a huge number (~80,000) of IRGC and Hezbollah fighters basically on Israel's doorstep. That would be a problem for any nation, under virtually any circumstances.

Israel has countered by conducting air ops and assassinations inside Syria and possibly elsewhere, and by supplying intelligence to the US to erode the Iran-US nuclear deal.

Does anyone follow this? Or have any thoughts on where this is all headed? Some folks who know about this kind of thing are suggesting that this air operation yesterday was a clear Operational Preparation of Battlespace type deal and that more is on the way.

This info is new to me. I've been real busy the last couple of weeks but two things pinged my radar that made me wonder about things in the ME.
1) BeBe's big public reveal on Iranian nuclear plans.
2) The Saudi's telling the Palestinians to get their heads out of their asses.

Made me wonder if they were preparatory towards an Israeli/Saudi/(US?) anti-Iran move in the ME.

BeBe's big reveal from 2003? Next he'll reveal who Luke's father was.

I much prefer that we watch this one from the sidelines, helping with intel and weapons as prudent. Not interested in having our people die for any of theirs.

I certainly hope this is true, as do all sane people everywhere. What concerns me is that the Iranian state is built on an...unreasonable foundation and that they have a proxy arm--Hezbollah--which can conduct operations from outside of Iran. In other words, they don't need to invade Israel in order to create great harm.

Personally, I tend to agree that they won't shoot themselves in the foot but what they will be likely to do is use this leverage to shore up Syria, advance their purposes in Yemen, and consolidate their power as the ascendant leader of the belligerent Islamic world. From there they can pressure Turkey, Israel, Saudi, their puppet state in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

"Prepare your hearts as a fortress, for there will be no other." -Francisco Pizarro González

Operational preparation of battlespace. The massive destruction of Iranian anti-aircraft weaponry at Hama, this step in the Knesset, and Ayatollah Khamenei's latest response all smack of escalation. I think Iran is just waiting until the May 6 elections in Lebanon are over then fireworks yo.

"Prepare your hearts as a fortress, for there will be no other." -Francisco Pizarro González

I really think the nuke thing is just a propaganda piece, but ask yourself why now? Bibi is preparing the international discourse for what may be coming.

I remember when war tore through Slovenia and Croatia, everyone was asking themselves why not Bosnia where the picture was even more muddled and disturbing. The joke on the ground was, using soccer parlance, that Bosnia had already advanced directly to the final round. Well, Syria is the prelims, Israel vs Iran is the final round. Saudis realized long ago that if they want to sell oil in this world, they were going to have to live with their Jewish neighbors. The threat is Iran.

"Prepare your hearts as a fortress, for there will be no other." -Francisco Pizarro González

Hard to disagree with any of that. Sometimes Americans can be dismally naive about our ability to influence people. That said, Iran really is (at least) two countries: the Mullahcracy and the Persian people. I'm pretty sure the clerics and the people who support them will never change, but the regular people of Iran are pretty open minded and curious. If anything though, that makes the elites even more nervous and reactionary.

"Prepare your hearts as a fortress, for there will be no other." -Francisco Pizarro González